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Monday, November 11, 2013

Our new journey...

I am finally able to share on Facebook and the blogosphere
that the Gadmans are beginning a new journey in ministry! After 7 years as
Pastor of Family Ministries at University Baptist Church in Houston, we are
actually leaving the great state of Texas and heading to Mississippi! And we
could not be more excited! This has been such a long process for us and God has
taught us so much that there is no way to tell the whole story in one blog
post. But I will give you the summary of God’s goodness.

Jason is going to be the Student Pastor at Pinelake Church
in Brandon, MS. Pinelake is a very large
church with multi campuses and we began to talk to them in March about a
different position. Jason met with two of the senior staff at the Hobby airport
and came home and said that he felt a strong connection with them, and it felt
natural and good and we were excited to see where it would go. They called soon
after to say they were going with someone else for the position they had talked
to him about, but they felt a strong connection with him and wanted to know if
he would be interested in talking about a different position. We had decided
long ago in our marriage and ministry to never close a door on a possibility
but let God do the door closing. So we began to talk about student ministry as
a possibility.

After many phone interviews, Jason and I went to visit July
4th weekend, and walked around the whole weekend with our mouths
open in awe that God would allow us to serve in such an amazing place. When we
left, we knew that was where God wanted us. We even kind of seriously joked
with each other about quitting our jobs and moving there even if he didn’t get
the job. We loved the community, we have always wanted to raise our boys in a
smaller area where they would have the opportunity to be involved in more
things, but yet have a more laid back atmosphere. And we loved the church.
There are so many things about it that we have always dreamed of in a church.
When we came back, we felt like we had left a part of ourselves in Mississippi.

They called that week to say that they really loved us and
thought we would be a great fit. But that they needed to wait a little bit
because they needed to do some staff reorganization first. And they didn’t know
how long it would take and they didn’t expect us to wait on them if God opened
another door somewhere else. It was kind of a devastating call to get. We were
ready to move. But over the next two months, God taught us so much about His
sovereignty, trusting Him and about prayer. We learned to pray in faith for
miracles and that He is the God of the impossible, but we also learned to pray
for his will to be done and his kingdom work to be accomplished. And we finally
got to a point of giving it back to him and acknowledging that if it didn’t
happen, it would be ok. We trusted him. It was a hard waiting period, but I wouldn’t
change it for anything.

After two months, we thought about calling them to check in
on Monday, Sept. 23rd. But over the weekend, Jason really felt
convicted that we wanted God to do this, not us. So we prayed that day, that
they would contact us before 6:00 if God still had that door open. And would
you believe, they emailed him at 5:30?! Chills. And they were ready to pick up
the conversations again if we were. They were going to call us on the 10th
to arrange the next step of the process and instead called on Oct. 2 to say
they wanted us there on Oct. 21st to meet the personnel team. So we
went, and when the plane landed, I said, “We’re home”.

We have been praying for a long time that when God was ready
to move us that it would be as clear to us as it was for the Israelites to
follow the pillar of cloud and fire. And it has been that clear. We are so
thankful and grateful for all that He as blessed us with in this process. Jason
starts his new ministry role on Dec. 1 and the boys and I will follow at Christmas
to let them finish the semester. They are doing well with moving. I’ll do
another post with more details on that. You can check out our new church at www.pinelake.org. We will be at the
Reservoir campus. He will be leading the student team, middle school through
college. God has called Jason to be a coach of a team, and he is so excited to
lead this team to change the lives of students in Mississippi! Once we get
settled, we would love to have visitors and show off God’s goodness!

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Though we are really going to miss you and your wonderful family, I know this is an incredible opportunity for all of you. How awesome to hear and follow God's calling. I know your family will do great in Mississippi and will be a huge blessing to your new church and community. God bless you and keep in touch! Robin O'Hara

"Welcome" in advance. I think you will love it here. God is doing great things in our student ministry and I know that your husband and your family will be a great part of His plan. Pinelake it not just a church, but a community at work for God. We look forward to having you here!

I just came across your blog when I did a Google search on Ch 8 of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. Then, I stumbled on his post about y'all moving to MS and I was shocked (I did notice the date and y'all moved a year or so ago). I just wanted to say Pinelake Reservoir was our church home for 12 years, until we moved to Alabama 2 years ago. I truly miss Pinelake and hope y'all love it as much as we do.